56.3. Method Aliases
Overview
Often it can be useful to define additional names (aliases) for a given method, in addition to the standard method name that appears in the Java API. A particularly common case is where you allow a property name (such as
widget) to be used as an alias for an accessor method (such as getWidget or setWidget).
Syntax
The
aliases element can be defined with one or more alias child elements, as follows:
<aliases>
<alias>
<methodPattern>MethodPattern</methodPattern>
<methodAlias>Alias</methodAlias>
</alias>
...
</aliases>
Where
MethodPattern is a regular expression (java.util.regex syntax) for matching method names from the Java API, and the pattern typically includes capturing groups. The Alias is the replacement expression (for use in a URI), which can use the text from the preceding capturing groups (for example, specified as $1, $2, or $3 for the text from the first, second, or third capturing group).
Scope
As shown in the following extract, the
aliases element can optionally appear as a child of the apis element and/or as a child of api elements:
<configuration>
<apis>
<api>
<apiName>...</apiName>
...
<aliases>...</aliases>
</api>
<aliases>...</aliases>
...
</apis>
</configuration>
You can define the
aliases element at the following scopes:
- As a child of an
apielement—thealiasesmappings apply only to the API class specified by theapielement. - As a child of the
apiselement—thealiasesmappings apply to all API classes by default, but can be overridden at theapilevel.
Example
The following example shows how to generate aliases for the common get/set bean method pattern:
<aliases>
<alias>
<methodPattern>[gs]et(.+)</methodPattern>
<methodAlias>$1</methodAlias>
</alias>
</aliases>
With the preceding alias definition, you could use
widget as an alias for either of the methods getWidget or setWidget. Note the use of a capturing group, (.+), to capture the latter part of the method name (for example, Widget).
